I have to admit that The WIZ is waaaaaay too long for me & is a bit of a chore but the visuals are cool in that wonked out seventies way & that subway scene is truly nuts. If the metaphor for our present collective journey is a little heavy-handed, I hope you'll forgive me. Who couldnt love dogs? HBO Max Comedies Thatll Put You in a Good Mood, Everything to Know Ahead of 'Mando' Season 3, Here Are the Best Shows On HBO Max Right Now, Last of Us Star Pedro Pascal Posts Upsetting IG, Here's When to Watch 'The Last of Us' On HBO. that someone will find out that I'm a fraud. The movie has become. . If youre going to create a work inspired by L. FRANK BAUMs THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ chances are you are going to end up with something kindertraumatic. Gordy and producer Rob Cohen cast Ross, then 33, as Dorothy. So I let him use it He asked me, Could I do this?and then enhanced it. Jacksons Scarecrow costume was hot and cumbersome, with a huge curly wig, a hat and vest stuffed with scraps of newspaper, not to mention a painted-on nose. He had seen Charlie Chaplin. The Wiz asks for our suspension of disbelief and earns it (after a slow start) in that great shot of Dorothy and the Scarecrow dancing across a yellow brick bridge toward the towers of Manhattan. This is a film with black stars. There were clashes on the set, as star Diana Ross made her transition from music diva to Hollywood diva, demanding an upgrade of her period-piece wardrobe. The Scarecrow's nose tip is the piece of brown paper that holds a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. She then comes across the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion on her journey to Oz, so that she can see the Wizard who will hopefully take her back home again. Another major location from the film that no longer exists, this former home of the New York Mets has been destroyed and replaced by Citi Field. TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Michael Martin, known as Iz the Wiz, was a prolific embellisher of New York subway cars, including this one painted in 1982. The Wiz Family 1978 2 hr 14 min English audio G CC Buy or rent Ease on down the yellow-brick road with The Wiz, starring superstars Diana Ross and Michael Jackson! Dorothy asking the guards of the gate how to get to Evilynn's. I imagine it'll be exactly like the "A Brand New Day" scene in The Wiz: After Dorothy melts Evilene (Mabel King), the Wicked Witch of the West, all the workers she imprisoned in her sweat shop (they make sweat) transform from misshapen ogres into lithe, well-moisturized ballet dancers, leaping and prancing in their underwear. The puppets are indubitably the scariest of the bunch. She also said she would be able to guarantee Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow if she was cast. The Wiz came along at a perfect time for Berry Gordy and Motown Records. My question is about a scene in the movie Shame starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan directed by Steve McQueen.. Its an interesting moment for really bringing in replicas of recognizable NYC landmarks rather than using real famous landmarks and trying to sort of disguise (or at least alter) them with crazy, yet awesome, production design. Those are some of the freakiest damn pics I have ever seen. The moving pillars in this movie really terrified me. Saw this on the tv in the late 1980s. In his book "Making Movies," Sidney Lumet admits that filming the Emerald City sequence on the plaza at the World Trade Center had to be cut short because of wind and scheduling. Snow Babies shot in the background were dolls. He has nothing but straw encompassing his head and crevices of his body. Jones liked only three songs from the Broadway showHome, Brand New Day, and a funky ensemble number called Ease On Down the Road. But he felt indebted to Lumet, whod hired him for many film scores in the past. Garland played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939). call me names." Hes so pure! Lumet exulted. Up until then the going has been a little awkward. The subway station scenes were filmed at the decommissioned Court Street IND station in Brooklyn, NY, also known as the NYC Transit Museum. The director who signed on, after a number of false starts, was Sidney Lumet, who had collaborated with a young Al Pacino on Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico. In giant clown shoes, he stumbles, rolls on the ground, and knocks out his knees. Additionally, unlike the 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz, The Wiz doesn't suggest that the whole adventure was Dorothy's dream. 2/The Wiz/Soundtrack Version) Quincy Jones 2:00 3 The Feeling That We Have (The Wiz/Soundtrack Version) Theresa Merritt 3:30 4 Can I Go On? He is my work-from-home fashion icon but beyond that, he's pretty useless. Original director John Badham stepped down when he objected to 33-year-old Diana Ross being cast as a teenage Dorothy. At one point, he took Michael aside to explain a Scarecrow bit in the scriptthat the Greek philosophers name is pronounced Sock-ra-tees and not Sow-cray-tees. As Jones would tell the story, he asked Michael right then if he could take a shot at producing his next solo album. One of two mid-1970s rock music/musical pictures inspired by 'The Wizard of Oz'. When you think about it, the story is about liminal space. Theres an instrument that can make the sounds you want. Watching this scene as a child, as a generation of black kids did, was quite an awakening. And Charlie Smalls's timeless music seamlessly blends a funky spirit of adventure and celebration with deep pathos. And the subway scene is creepy as hell. from the 1978 musical free of charge! Though the future may not be certain, being strong after times of vulnerability is an alright thing. One thing about the movie thats rarely celebrated is the fact its directed by Sidney Lumet. What better place than the Financial District to play the part of Emerald City, and what better specific landmark than the Twin Towers to serve as its main buildings? Magical tornadoes can strike down anywhere, I guess, and spin you off to the land of Oz. In the 2015 television special, Dorothy learns that home is where her family is, which is with Aunt Em in Kansas, as opposed to in Omaha, where she use to live with her deceased parents. Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel both gave this two thumbs up on Sneak Previews: The Wiz/Who is Killing The Great Chefs of Europe?/Girlfriends/The Big Fix/Days of Heaven (1978). The Tin Man is the last of Dorothy's friends, and he is seeking something that we all seek daily: a good heart. This movie changed Dorothy's shoes from ruby slippers back to silver slippers, as in the original L. Frank Baum story. For their original book counterparts, click here. Also, one of the pictures looks like the video for Bad, Not entirely related but Those paintings of faces of the walls look like peak ENA character material. Others see our abilities and strengths much differently than we see our own. Maybe I just love subway scenes! Chrysler Buildinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Building. This earlier production of The Wiz could have been so much better. She likes to be in charge and loves to boss me around. I owed him a lot.. Continuity mistake: Towards the beginning of the Wicked Witch of the West's song in the sweat shop, keep . See answer (1) Copy. At night, the young cast went out to play in New York City. He was a great fan of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, says Johnson, who is in his early eighties, by phone from his New York home. Their words of wisdom, on top of her personal meditation and advice-seeking is what leads her back home in the end. The Jackson 5s a Vegas act, the director told Cohen. The song was cut from the stage version of the musical during previews, but was included in the film as the Scarecrow's song. It had a great concept (an African-American take on The Wizard of Oz in which the characters dont follow the yellow brick road, they ease on down it), a strong director (Sidney Lumet, whod just done Dog Day Afternoon and Network) and a solid cast (Diana Ross as Dorothy, Richard Pryor as the Wiz, Nipsey Russell as the Tin Man). It's all sitting on the surface of the film. If you can hear it, I can write it down. The exchange, which MJ recorded, ends with Quincy requesting his number. To Aunt Em; Glinda and Aunt Em are the most wise and maternal figures in Dorothy's life throughout the course of the musical. It's quite unnerving as a first impression of Oz. When this movie debuted on CBS, the network trimmed several scenes to fit in a 3 hour block with commercials. The red sequence had to be shortened due to a lighting error, and there was no time to re-shoot. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. The Scarecrow tells us however, that it is alright to have moments of silliness, moments of being confident in the abilities that we do have and to have faith in our purpose. 35 years ago this week, two very different movies had their theatrical premieres. There are lots of good scenes in the Emerald City. In the original Oz novels, L. Frank Baum, they were unnamed. The plaza was also known for being a bit of a wind tunnel and that disrupted the production, so the scene wasnt as complete as intended since The Port Authority wouldnt allow reshoots. Everybody has a crying jagthe Lion cries, and Diana Ross and the Tin Man, he says. Social commentary is woven into the fabric of The Wiz; Dorothy is going through a magical crisis, yes, but she's also facing down systemic injustice. Possible reasons include using Baum as source material, not The Wizard of Oz (1939), and silver slippers better matching Diana Ross' complexion and costuming. Sidney Lumet was chosen to direct primarily because of his reputation for finishing his pictures on time and within budget. In the film, Michaels most impressive steps are with Diana Ross, as he clumsily learns to walk after being imprisoned by crows on his scarecrow pole. 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